Introduction to Searching the Chemical Literature

1. Introduction to Searching the Chemical Literature

2. Introduction to Searching the Chemical Literature • Introduction • Welcome • Sections • Quiz • The Chemical Literature • Objectives • Structure of the Literature • Types of Citations • Finding It • Searching the Literature • Objectives • About SciFinder Scholar • By Research Topic • By Author Name • Conclusion • Quiz

3. Introduction: Welcome • This tutorial is designed to introduce you to searching the chemical literature. • It is important for chemists to know where to find information about the work that other chemists have done. Remember Westheimer’s Discovery: "A coupla months in the laboratory can save a coupla hours in the library."

4. Introduction: Welcome • If you need to know more about using the libraries at UNC, the tutorial at http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/tutorial/ is a good place to start. • Or just ask a librarian! They’re there to help you find what you need.

5. Introduction: Sections • There are two main sections of this tutorial and a quiz at the end. • The first section discusses the chemical literature in general. • The second helps you learn how to use SciFinder Scholar, a powerful tool for accessing the literature.

6. Introduction: Quiz • There is a brief quiz at the end which will allow you to see how well you understood the material covered in the tutorial. • There are 5 multiple choice questions in the quiz.

7. The Chemical Literature: Objectives • After completing this section, you will be able to • Tell the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary materials in the chemical literature. • Determine whether a citation is for a journal article or another type of reference.

8. The Chemical Literature: Structure of the Literature • The chemical literature consists of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. • When chemists talk about “searching the literature,” they generally are referring to primary sources.

9. The Chemical Literature: Structure of the Literature • Works consisting of original information reported by scientists such as articles, conference proceedings, dissertations patents, and technical reports, are considered primary materials.

10. The Chemical Literature: Structure of the Literature • Materials that are made up of information from primary sources that has been reorganized are considered secondary. • Examples: abstracts, bibliographies, dictionaries, handbooks, indexes, review articles, tables, and treatises.

11. The Chemical Literature: Structure of the Literature • Tertiary materials are intended to teach you how to use primary and secondary sources.

12. The Chemical Literature: Types of Citations • When you are reading and searching the literature, you will come across different types of citations. Here are some examples: • Books • Gutsche, C.D.; Redmore, D. Carbocyclic Ring Expansion Reactions; Academic Press: New York, 1968; pp. 111-117. • Chapters from books • Breslow, R. In Molecular Rearrangements; de Mayo, P., Ed.; Interscience. New York, 1963; pp. 233-294. • Journal articles • Flowers, M.C.; Frey, H.M. J. Chem. Soc. 1961, 3547. • Patents • Sneddon, L.N. US 4,028,167

13. The Chemical Literature: Finding It • The major tool for accessing the primary sources of chemistry is Chemical Abstracts. • American chemists have relied on it since 1907 to help them find their way through the literature.

14. The Chemical Literature: Finding It • Chemical Abstracts offers a variety of ways to find what you’re looking for: author, chemical substance, formula, general subject, and patent. • If something can be considered a chemical substance, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) includes it in the Chemical Abstracts.

15. The Chemical Literature: Finding It • Subject areas included are biochemistry, biotechnology, environmental science, food science, geochemistry, materials science, toxicology and agricultural, analytical, applied, inorganic, macromolecular, organic, and physical chemistry.

16. The Chemical Literature: Finding It • Journal articles and patents make up more than 90% of what is indexed. • You can also find books, conference proceedings, dissertations, electronic-only journals, meeting abstracts, preprints, reviews, and technical reports.

17. The Chemical Literature: Finding It • CAS publishes a print version of Chemical Abstracts and offers access in a number of other ways including microfilm, online, CD-ROM, and licensed databases. • One of the newest ways of accessing Chemical Abstracts is SciFinder. You will be learning more about it in the next section.

18. Searching the Literature: Objectives • After completing this section, you will be able to • Search SciFinder Scholar by research topic or author name in order to locate articles.

19. Searching the Literature: About SciFinder Scholar • The databases you search with SciFinder Scholar are • CAPlus • Online version of Chemical Abstracts • Over 25 million records • MedLine • Medical literature • Created by the National Library of Medicine

20. Searching the Literature: About SciFinder Scholar • SciFinder Scholar is only available at the Chemistry Library or the Health Sciences Library unless you download special software to your computer so that you can use it while you are on campus. The downloading instructions are located at http://www.uncle.unc.edu/uncle/News/scifinder.htm

21. Searching the Literature: About SciFinder Scholar • Because no more than 5 people can use SciFinder Scholar at a time, it is important that you log off when you are finished so that others may use it.

22. When you open SciFinder Scholar, the first thing you see is the “Explore” menu. You have 6 different choices of how to search for articles. We will only be looking at “Research Topic” and “Author Name.”

23. Searching by “Research Topic” is one of the most common ways people find articles using SciFinder Scholar.

24. One nice feature about SciFinder Scholar is that you describe the research topic you’re interested in using plain English.

25. Search the Literature: By Research Topic • Tips for searching by subject • Add synonyms in parentheses after the related word or phrase • Synthesis of cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) • Use OR and AND unless a preposition (after, between, from, in, upon, etc.) would better describe what you’re looking for

26. Check the results you are interested in. Then click here to see your results

27. The computer icon shows a publication is available electronically. Clicking on it will take you to the full-text article if it is available at UNC. Click on the microscope to see the article abstract.

28. And then you’re ready to print out your abstract and find the article!

29. Choose “Author Name” if you already know the name of a scientist who has published work on what you are interested in.

30. You can enter the entire first name or just an initial. Check “Look for alternative spellings of the last name” so you don’t miss citations where the name is spelled incorrectly or differently.

31. Check the results you are interested in. Then click here to see your results Getting to your results is pretty much the same as when you search by research topic

32. Conclusion • Now you have an idea what all those chemists mean when they talk about “the literature,” and you’re ready to do some searching on your own!

33. Quiz • How does SciFinder Scholar fit into the chemical literature? • A. It isn’t part of the chemical literature. • B. It is a quaternary source. • C. It is considered a secondary source. • D. It is a primary source.

34. Quiz • Yolles, Seymour. Reflective pigments. (1962). 4 pp. US 3053683. The above citation from SciFinder Scholar is for a • A. journal article • B. book chapter • C. book • D. patent

35. Quiz • The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is considered • A. a primary material. • B. a secondary material. • C. a tertiary material. • D. none of the above.

36. Quiz • Davies, A. G.; Fischer, E. O.; Reutov, O. A.; Editors. Journal of Organometallic Chemistry Library, Vol. 20: Organometallic Chemistry Reviews (1988). 365 pp. The above citation is for a work that would be considered • A. primary material. • B. secondary material. • C. tertiary material. • D. quaternary material.

37. Quiz • You can search SciFinder Scholar on the computers in • A. the Undergraduate Library. • B. your house. • C. the Chemistry Library. • D. the Chapel Hill Public Library.